Loneliness
by hetafan13
Summary: Arthur is just a simple boy, with a simple wish: He doesn't want to be alone. And then he meets Alfred. Human AU, slightly dark towards the end.


**Title:** Loneliness

**Rating:** T

**Summary:** Arthur is just a simple boy, with a simple wish: He doesn't want to be alone. And then he meets Alfred. Human AU, slightly dark towards the end.

**Author's Note:** I'd just like to give a huuuuuge thanks to my friend Taka (geekisthenewawesome here on FanFiction. net) for betaing this for me! ^_^

* * *

Once upon a time, there lived a boy. He was a plain, ordinary boy, nothing remarkable about him—save for his eyes, a shade of green impossible to compare to anything on this planet without doing them a disservice. This boy lived at home with his brothers, all older than him, and all unspeakably cruel. But he still tried to love them, because they were his brothers, and he had no other family or other people to depend on. Of course, there were the fairies, and the elves, and the gnomes, and the unicorns, and all the other magical creatures. However, no eyes but his could see them. But this was fine by him; it meant he could have those magical creatures all to himself. They were his source of comfort, his one ray of light in an otherwise dark, cruel, and lonely world.

And then there was Alfred.

There was a house next door to the boy's. It was an old, run-down house, and was uninhabited for the longest time. Until, to everyone's surprise, a new family (an average, Catholic, middle-class family; nothing really special about them, except for the fact that they actually chose to move into such a run-down old place) moved in: a mother, a father, and a young boy with eyes as blue as the sky—bluer, even. The most beautiful shade of blue that the poor, lonely boy had ever seen.

It was those eyes that he fell in love with first.

At first, the boy couldn't stand this new kid. The two of them were complete opposites in every way, shape, and form. And yet...

"Hey! My family just moved in! My name's Alfred F. Jones, hero-in-training! What's your name?"

"My... my name?"

"Yep! You _do_ have one, right?"

"Of... O-of course I do! My name's... M-my name's Arthur. Arthur Kirkland."

"Nice to meet you, Arthur! We're gonna be best friends in no time, I just know it!"

"... Perhaps. Or perhaps we won't get along at all."

"What's that supposed to mean? Of _course_ we'll get along! We're gonna be best friends, I'll make sure of it!"

And "make sure of it" he did. Arthur found that he just couldn't hate Alfred, despite how annoying, loud, and abrasive he was. Like a moth to a flame, no matter what Arthur did, he just couldn't keep himself away from the bright-eyed, energetic boy. It even got to the point that, when Alfred would have to go home—he was always such a good boy despite how free-spirited he came off as, always going home without even having to be called by his parents, whereas Arthur would always stay out until the screams of his brothers could be heard throughout the neighborhood—Arthur would find himself unable to tear his thoughts away from Alfred. Alfred's smile, Alfred's laugh, Alfred's personality, Alfred's appearance, Alfred's _everything_.

Hardly one year passed since he met Alfred before one night, as he lay on his bed, staring up at his ceiling, the thought fleetingly passed through his head, hardly even fazing him. _... I'm in love with Alfred._

From the moment he accepted this fact, he made even more of an effort than before to see Alfred as often as possible. And Alfred, as if sensing Arthur's determination, began putting in his best effort as well; the two of them became practically inseparable, always sneaking away from their respective houses at all hours to meet up, spending their time talking and having fun. Arthur loved never once having to go to Alfred's house and ring his doorbell to ask for Alfred to come and play, with Alfred always beating him to the punch and meeting him before he could even make it halfway to Alfred's house. And Alfred in turn never had to go and ask Arthur's brothers if Arthur could play—not that Arthur's brothers would even allow him to go out and have fun.

_Am I using Alfred as a way to get away from my brothers? To have the satisfaction of doing something behind their backs?_ The thought crossed Arthur's mind once, and only once, before Arthur pushed it out of his mind almost immediately. _I love Alfred. I want to see him because I want to see him; my brothers have nothing to do with it._

Another thing that Arthur loved about Alfred was that he always seemed to know whenever Arthur was hurting. Whenever Arthur got into a fight with his brothers and ran away, no matter where he ran, Alfred would always be able to find him. Arthur would cry, Alfred would console him, Arthur would insist that he wasn't crying, Alfred would laugh and tease him gently while running his fingers through Arthur's hair, soothing Arthur until he relaxed against his chest. It was always the same routine, and Arthur was so incredibly grateful for Alfred's support. _I finally have someone to depend on—an actual person, not any of my magical friends... I'm finally not alone..._ Alfred would always stay with Arthur and help distract him until he was feeling better and acting like his old self—calling Alfred an idiot and yelling at him with slightly reddened cheeks—before helping Arthur sneak back home, miraculously never once getting caught by Arthur's brothers.

There were a few close calls, though.

Once, possibly the closest time that Arthur could ever remember, Arthur's brother very nearly caught Alfred when he'd snuck into Arthur's room through Arthur's window (which Arthur had thoroughly lectured Alfred about, considering how Alfred had to climb a nearby tree in order to reach said window) in order to check on Arthur and make sure he was okay. Arthur's oldest brother barged into Arthur's room unannounced, glaring and scowling while demanding to know who Arthur was talking to. Arthur grew nervous, and was about to try and come up with some sort of excuse (with himself to blame, because he didn't want Alfred to get in trouble with his parents) when Arthur's brother rolled his eyes. He spat in his direction, telling him that if he was going to talk to his "imaginary friends," then he should at least keep it down, before leaving Arthur's room and slamming the door closed behind him. Arthur was confused, looking around before realizing that Alfred had disappeared... only to look down and see Alfred popping his head out from under his bed, grinning cockily before sticking his tongue out at the closed door. Arthur was just barely being able to suppress his relieved laughter in response.

But no matter how many close calls there were, Alfred never once got caught; and the two were able to continue happily spending their time together, slowly growing older and slowly falling deeper and deeper in love. Alfred, always the gentleman (despite how he may have usually come off, and despite the fact that Arthur was the one who claimed to be the "gentleman" of the two), refused to do anything inappropriate with Arthur until they were both adults and could get properly married, a thought that made Arthur blush to his roots while trying to repress a silly, giddy grin every time it passed through his head. The two tried to kiss once, but it was sloppy, messy, inexperienced—the two laughed it off, but were both too shy to try it again, settling for holding hands, hugging, and cuddling together instead.

It was when Arthur entered college that things started going downhill.

Despite living next door to each other, Arthur and Alfred never went to the same school—Alfred's parents put all their money into sending him to some expensive school (which he hated) in hopes of him getting a good education and a good job, while Arthur merely attended the nearest public school. His brothers were too cheap and too indifferent towards him to really care what kind of education he even got, let alone to be willing to put money towards it. So, when college started, the two of them began to see less and less of each other, each one buried in their own work. Alfred would still always manage to find him whenever he ran away from home, but even those times became few and far in between as Arthur poured himself into his work. Arthur wanted to get the best degree that he could in the college he got into on a full scholarship—something that he was very proud of, considering how he was the only one of his brothers to even go to college to begin with, let alone be able to get into a college without having to pay a dime. However, Alfred also always seemed to know whenever Arthur had even just the slightest bit of down time to spare, always popping up at just the right moments to pull Arthur away from the schoolwork—and away from his family—so the two of them could have some time alone to laugh and smile and cuddle and enjoy being in each other's presence.

Arthur seemed to notice that Alfred would never appear when anyone else was around, but considering the fact that Alfred's parents were devout Catholics, this made logical sense. When he confronted Alfred about this, Alfred confirmed his suspicions that he didn't want anyone to find out and let his parents know that their precious, Catholic-raised son was gay, something that Arthur was slightly upset by (he had a feeling that he wasn't going to be getting their blessing anytime soon, not that he thought he would've gotten it had they been accepting of homosexuality), but he reasoned that it gave them yet another excuse to be alone together, with no one to bother them.

Arthur's brothers always would question him, wondering where he could be going when he obviously had no friends, but Arthur would always reply vaguely. He didn't want to get Alfred in trouble by giving away that he'd been meeting with Alfred so often—and not only that, but there was a part of him that wanted to have the satisfaction of knowing something that his brothers didn't: his own little secret, his and Alfred's.

But one day, Arthur couldn't skirt around the subject, and he was forcibly dragged out of the house and into his oldest brother's car.

"Where are you taking me?"

"... Arthur, we saw. We followed you. Or were you so lost in your little fantasy world that you didn't notice?"

Arthur cursed himself for not paying more attention to their surroundings, having been so focused on being with Alfred that he'd let his guard down. "You didn't answer my question. Where. Are. You. Taking. Me."

"To a shrink. It's about damn time we got this "imaginary friend" situation straightened out. We're sick of our family having a bad rep because we've got a crazy brother."

"W-what the hell is that supposed to mean?" _W-wait, wait, this is good! They probably didn't see Alfred! Oh thank god, that means that he won't get in trouble..._

Alfred's brothers remained silent for the rest of the ride, parking the car a few minutes later and forcing Arthur out of the car and into the therapist's office. They told the therapist to give them a call when their brother was "cured" before driving away, leaving Arthur to insist again and again that he had no "imaginary friends."

Then, somehow, the subject of Alfred came up.

It was like a floodgate was opened the minute Alfred's name left his lips. Arthur sat on that chair for hours on end, talking on and on about Alfred, the therapist merely nodding his head occasionally as he listened to the interesting ramblings that flipped back and forth between searing insults and affectionate compliments. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Arthur stopped himself, blushing madly and refusing to meet the therapist's eyes, muttering, "... So you see? I don't know what my bloody brothers are on about, but I have no imaginary friends. Just Alfred. Alfred is the only person that I actually have, my only real friend, the only real person that cares about me."

The therapist merely nodded, scribbling something down on a piece of paper before giving his brothers a call, saying that they could come and pick Arthur up. The therapist gave his eldest brother the paper he'd written on, and his brother reluctantly handed the therapist a cheque in return before driving a smug Arthur home, happy that he was right and that his brothers were wrong.

Then came the pills.

Arthur's brothers would force him to take them, and, seeing no harm in taking them and proving his brothers wrong, he did—except Alfred would get mad at him every time he took the pills, and he'd start spending less and less time with him, saying that he didn't want to be in a relationship with someone who had to "pop pills." Desperate to not lose the one person in his life that he loved and that loved him back, he stopped taking the pills, flushing them down the toilet when his brothers weren't looking. He started disregarding everything and everyone that wasn't Alfred—clinging to Alfred like a man drowning. Alfred, in turn, accepted the attention and affection with open arms, choosing to neglect his own studies as well in favor of spending time with Arthur.

It was fairly predictable, yet apparently no one seemed to think that they would actually do it—which is exactly why they were able to run away together without getting caught, Arthur stealing his oldest brother's car and driving away with Alfred in the middle of the night. Alfred already had a place for them to go in mind, and he gave Arthur the directions, Arthur pulling over and parking the car in an abandoned area before closing his eyes and letting Alfred lead him the rest of the way, Alfred insisting that it had to be a surprise.

"Just a little bit more, aaaaaaand stop! 'kay, open your eyes~"

"Git, this had better be worth it..." Arthur opened his eyes, his breath catching in his throat. "Oh Alfred, it's... it's... _incredible..._"

Alfred hugged Arthur from behind, pulling him against his chest. "Isn't it? The perfect spot for us to stay, far away from everyone... Such a beautiful view of the ocean... and it's all for us. No one ever comes around this area, I already checked weeks ago."

"I-Is that why you were gone recently? I thought it was because..." Arthur looked slightly upset before shaking his head, blushing slightly. "N-Not that I cared or missed you or anything!"

Alfred kissed his cheek, chuckling. "Arthur, I'll never leave you, if that's what you're worried about. We'll always be together, forever..."

Arthur closed his eyes, relaxing. "That's right... together forever..."

"... 'til death do us part..." Alfred filled in, taking Arthur's hand and slipping a ring onto it, Arthur's eyes tearing up in response.

"A-Alfred... you didn't... you shouldn't have... I-I didn't need anything fancy like this..."

"But Arthur, you're worth this and so much more!" Alfred kissed Arthur's cheek again. "I love you, Arthur. I love you so much..."

Arthur turned around in Alfred's hold, deciding to muster up enough courage to give kissing him on the lips another shot after all of these years, tentatively pressing their lips together before pulling away with a beet-red face. "I... I love you too... git. Why else would I be here with you?"

Alfred pressed their lips together again, this time with more force, and Arthur let his eyes flutter closed as he kissed back to the best of his ability. The two of them grew more passionate and more confident as they continued kissing, both of them pushing against each other with more force than was probably necessary in their desperation to be as close as possible, not that either of them noticed.

Not only that, but there was something else they both failed to notice as well. Neither of them seemed to notice the fact that, without a wall or something solid to support them, they were unconsciously backing their way towards the edge of the cliff.

Or perhaps they noticed, but they just didn't care.

"... 'til death do us part, Arthur."

* * *

The next morning, a single body was found dead at the bottom of a cliff, the waves from the nearby ocean pushing and pulling at the sand nearby. Seeing as the cliff was a common place to go for those looking to commit suicide, the case was easily wrapped up as "just another suicidal teenager" and left at that—the police were merely grateful that their work was made easier by the presence a body to identify, since there had been plenty of cases where the ocean would sweep away the body before anyone could even get to it.

And the boy—the poor, ordinary boy with the beautiful green eyes—finally got his happily ever after. He wasn't alone, not anymore


End file.
